Is there any national accrediting body (like the ADA) that limits or controls the number of dentists every year?? Or is it relatively easy to build a new dental school?? I know that educating dentists is now extremely profitable for dental schools - more now than it ever has been. And that is probably why there has been a surge in both the number of schools and the number of seats in many dental schools. But I was wondering if there is any mechanism in place to control supply or match the supply with demand for dentists ( like there already is for OMFS)?? Please enlighten me.
What controls the number of dentists?
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Well, I believe the issue is that, in order for a grad school to open (law, pharm, dent, etc.), the school must meet a set of predetermined rules and guidelines set by the profession's accrediting body. If these guidelines are met, the school is open for business, whether the new school is needed or not. The accrediting body has no say in allowing a new school to begin the building process, only whether it meets the bar set for all schools.
I believe there was recently a push for the American Bar Association to start closing existing law schools and keeping new ones from opening. It was met with so much legal hassle with antitrust laws, that it was shot down before it even started.
Basically, the bottom line is that each profession's accrediting body doesn't have the authority to limit the supply of new grads.
I believe there was recently a push for the American Bar Association to start closing existing law schools and keeping new ones from opening. It was met with so much legal hassle with antitrust laws, that it was shot down before it even started.
Basically, the bottom line is that each profession's accrediting body doesn't have the authority to limit the supply of new grads.
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We could require min PGY-1 for all states. That would create artificial bottle neck instantly, but idk how many people would take kindly to that change =)
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Accrediting bodies don't have too much power over dentist supply. It is quite easy to build a dental school. What makes it easy is that the federal government keeps giving out unlimited loans to students. Schools know this and so they know they can charge sky-high tuition because the federal government never puts any restrictions on how much schools can charge, what their quality of education is, or how much tuition can increase, or how much faculty can make in salary/pension.
For OMFS and specialties, accrediting bodies have somewhat more control. However, endo and OMFS are the 2 only in-demand specialties that are carefully regulated in terms of supply. Ortho and Pediatric dentistry residency programs are mushrooming all over the place. The reason ortho residences are mushrooming is because of the same unlimited federal student loans. Pediatric residencies are exploding (particularly by one shady institution called Lutheran Medical) because Obamacare now covers pediatric dental coverage.
Yes, that's exactly what I'm afraid of - the future of dentistry as a result of oversaturation. I wish I could hear some good news about the future. Sigh...
Could you also explain how endo is carefully regulated? I get that ortho residencies are easy to set-up and can charge high tuition, but can't endo programs also do the same thing?? OMFS residencies require hospital privileges and don't charge tuition (as a matter of fact, they pay a stipend), so that would limit the numbers for OMFS. But how would it work for endo? Also, what do you think of perio residencies? How are they doing?
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I'm not sure entirely, but this would be my best guess: Perio doesn't seem to be as much in hot demand (its 3 yrs and there isn't as clear of a monetary benefit in specializing in perio b/c they are somewhat limited in what they can do (lots of GPs are now learning how to do implants)). So in a sense, I don't think perio is as much in demand by dental students.
I'm not so sure about endo. My guess is that Endo might have tougher requirements by the accrediting body and maybe the schools can't make as much of a profit off of opening new ones. It also seems kind of harder for a random institution to just open up a residency program in endo without having a solid stream of regular dental patients already established (which would undoubtedly have to be set up in a poor-income area). I think perio might have this same problem as endo, in that it requires a steady stream of patients. Without a steady stream of patients, the residents might not have any work to do! Maybe the accrediting bodies require a certain level and variety of cases done by residents that can only be achieved by having an established pool of patients for general dental work, first. All of this makes it harder to open a residency program that both makes money for the institution and meets requirements
As for endo residencies charging sky high tuition, many already do (here are three links to USC, LLU, and UPenn that already charge):
http://dentistry.usc.edu/programs/certificate/endodontics/
http://www.llu.edu/dentistry/endo/graduateprogram.page#tuition
http://www.dental.upenn.edu/academi...rams/endodontic_residency_program/annual_fees
I'm not so sure about endo. My guess is that Endo might have tougher requirements by the accrediting body and maybe the schools can't make as much of a profit off of opening new ones. It also seems kind of harder for a random institution to just open up a residency program in endo without having a solid stream of regular dental patients already established (which would undoubtedly have to be set up in a poor-income area). I think perio might have this same problem as endo, in that it requires a steady stream of patients. Without a steady stream of patients, the residents might not have any work to do! Maybe the accrediting bodies require a certain level and variety of cases done by residents that can only be achieved by having an established pool of patients for general dental work, first. All of this makes it harder to open a residency program that both makes money for the institution and meets requirements
As for endo residencies charging sky high tuition, many already do (here are three links to USC, LLU, and UPenn that already charge):
http://dentistry.usc.edu/programs/certificate/endodontics/
http://www.llu.edu/dentistry/endo/graduateprogram.page#tuition
http://www.dental.upenn.edu/academi...rams/endodontic_residency_program/annual_fees
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